Danaus Plexippus: The Monarch Butterfly
by TempduLoupe
Summary: Rose, the 12th Doctor, Clara and Danny are sitting in a living room in 1940 New York with the Ponds telling everyone the story of River Song's life. The Ponds' are in for a surprise as they learn the truth about their supposedly dead daughter, as well as the past lives and loves of their beloved Doctor. 12&10/Rose, 11/River, 4/Romana, 1/OC, Beware the Bad Wolf.
1. Egg: Prologue

Danaus plexippus – The Monarch Butterfly

Pairings: 11/River, 4/Romana, 9/Rose, 10/Rose, 1/OC. Amy/Rory, Clara/Danny. 12/Rose WibblyWobblyTimeyWimey Pairing.

Disclaimer: I own nothing, but the frankly ridiculous plot that you are about to begin. BBC owns everything else. Including a piece of my soul… BBC is my horcrux.

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Prologue – The Laying of an Egg

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Like most butterflies, the majestic Monarch has five stages of life. The Egg, the Larva, the Caterpillar, the Butterfly and finally it culminates in reproduction, and the story ends just as it began…With the Laying of an Egg.

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1940 New York City

"I'm sorry, but what? How is that even possible?" Danny Pink asked the young looking blonde as if she'd grown another head, "How can a person have more than one face, let alone twelve!?"

Rose Tyler smiled in understanding, bouncing a baby boy with reddish brown hair on her knee as she was once again interrupted in her telling of the story of River Song's life.

"You were born in the late twentieth century and are currently sitting in an apartment over 40 years before you were born…and you're wondering how a person can have twelve faces? I can see why you didn't like him at first," Rose smirked conspiratorially at her husband. The aforementioned husband chuckled good-naturedly as he brought a hand down to rest on the swell of his wife's pregnant belly.

"He's not much to look at, but he can do a mean front flip," the Doctor replied, using the hand that wasn't resting over his unborn child to run his fingers through his silver curls.

The baby in the blonde's lap leaned forward, reaching for the red head lounging in the armchair adjacent to the love seat that Rose and the Doctor were occupying.

Amy reached forward and pulled her adopted son into her lap, admonishing the doctor succinctly, "Be nice to Danny, Doctor, or I'll hide the Jammy Dodgers again and convince the TARDIS to do the same every time you try to get more."

Straightening his posture and crossing his legs, he silently agreed to better behavior for the sake of his beloved cookies.

"Now, you were saying…Rose was it? The name bit is still confusing me," Rory interjected once the Doctor settled down.

"Oh, right, and you can call me Rose for now, it'll make more sense once I've finished explaining. Now where was I?" She asked aloud.

"You just finished telling us about how our daughter Melody was born on Demon's Run and were about to explain what happened during the time she was missing after her first regeneration. The most River ever told us was that she'd regenerated into a toddler. She never explained how she'd gotten to Leadworth in the 1990's from 1969 in the US," Amy supplied helpfully. Her face clearly showed how eager she was to learn more about her lost daughter.

"Ah, thanks. You see, when you met Mels Zucker, when you were seven, that wasn't your daughter's second body, it was her third. She regenerated into the seven year old you met almost forty years after she first regenerated at the age of nine in 1969. It all started when she was found by a Time Agent by the name of Jack Harkness. He was the reason she always felt most at home in the 51st century."

End Prologue

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TBC in – Part 1: Egg

Chapter 1: The Tiny Rebel

A/N: if you are interested in me continuing this and finding out what the hell is going on, then please review and let me know what you think.


	2. Egg Chapter 1: The Tiny Rebel

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Part 1: Egg

Chapter 1: The Tiny Rebel

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Within the egg, the tiny monarch begins to develop. Completely unaware that a big change is about to occur.

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1969 above the city of Orlando, Florida, United States of America, Planet Earth, Solar System, Milky Way Galaxy

Captain Jack Harkness had been sent to this specific year to ensure that the mission to the moon went off without a hitch after several temporal anomalies were recorded in this stretch of the time line.

Oddly enough however, when he'd arrived the timeline has already been straightened and the rocket was on its way. The only thing his systems were picking up were a faint spike of time energy that seemed to be moving on and off his radar, making it incredibly hard to track.

He'd bounced ahead by month long increments and each time the energy seemed to be getting weaker and weaker. That is until nearly six months after he'd first arrived and the time energy has spiked so hard that it had overloaded several of his gauges.

If it weren't for the fact that there was a very obvious plume of golden time energy coming from an ally way in one of the poorer parts of the city, he might never have found the source of the energy.

Imagine his surprise when the explosive temporal anomaly he'd been tracking turned out to be the silhouette of a nine year old girl, transforming before his eyes into a two year old toddler.

Blinking in surprise, his eyes turned to saucers as the small child opened her mouth and began to complain in a very un-toddler like way.

"I'm a BABY?" the little girl pouted in outrage. The too large and singed clothes she was wearing pooled around her tiny body as she attempted to stand amidst the pile of fabric, "They said I'd get a different body! Not revert into a bloody useless baby!? I wanted to be older!"

Finally the girl managed to retrieve her arms from the tangle of clothing surrounding her and tumbled out wearing nothing, but a pair of too big pink and yellow panties that now came up to her chest.

Upon righting herself, she finally saw the man standing in front of her with his mouth wide open.

With a high pitched EEP, the tiny child launched herself back into the pile of clothes, "TURN AROUND! I'M NAKED!" she ordered as she frantically pulled the tent of clothing around her body.

"Who? – No - WHAT the hell are you?!" Jack finally managed to blurt out.

"I don't see how what I am is any of your business! Now TURN AROUND!" she shouted back.

Damn, this kid was feisty.

He quickly turned around to face the opening of the ally and listened to the grunts of the girl as she struggled with the clothes.

"Alright, I'm dressed. Now turn around and start answering my questions," she ordered.

He chuckled at the sight that greeted him. The shirt she'd been wearing previously was now serving as a dress that dragged the ground. What looked to have been a pair of leggings had been ripped and used to cinch the shirt to her waist to keep it in place.

"Stop, laughing it isn't funny!" she pouted angrily, tears coming to her eyes.

As one of the tears ran down her face she reached up in surprise, "Ugh, I forgot how stupid being a baby was."

The entire time this encounter had been going on, Jack had been thinking about how his bosses at the Time Agency would love to get their hands on the cause of the anomaly….and here it was served up to him in the form of a defenseless toddler.

'Almost too easy,' he thought as he walked up to her and picked her up.

"HEY! Put me down! What the hell do you think you're doing!?

Adjusting his hold on the girl to prevent her attempt at biting his ear, he beamed up to his ship and dropped the toddler onto his bed.

He rubbed at his wrist, surprised as t the amount of strength the girl seemed to have, "You're stronger than you look."

"Yeah, and I'm about to kick your balls in so hard that you'll taste blood and be singing soprano in the women's choir until the day you die!" the toddler growled angrily, her dirty blonde bangs hanging in her face.

"Where the hell did you learn that kind of language?" he asked shocked.

"From the privates in the army of the Church of Silence. I was also taught 16 ways to kill a man with just my thumb! So you'd better do as I say or you'll regret it!" She threatened as she launched herself off the bed and latched onto his arm, sinking her tiny, but sharp teeth into his already injured wrist."

"OW! Get off! You little urchin," he demanded, swinging his arm in an attempt to shake the girl off before she did any more damage.

Unfortunately she'd latched on pretty tightly and it took several hard shakes and swatting to get her to detach. Tossing her back on the bed, he quickly reached for a can of knock out gas, grabbing the first bottle he touched. As he whipped around he realized that she had already vacated the bed and had crawled under the navigation console.

He quickly crept toward the console, ready to spray her at a moment's notice. Just as he reached the edge and could see into the wiring hatched she'd crawled up, he heard the sound of metal grating and wires being ripped out.

"OI! Be careful or we'll both be stranded in this back water time period!" he warned.

Before he could react a jagged piece of metal from his navigation system was thrust out the hatch opening and thrust into the can of knock out gas, bursting the multidimensional container and filling the room with several thousand doses worth of the aerosolized chemical.

As he hit the floor the remains of the can rolled towards the hatch where little Melody was hiding, holding her breath with her newly formed respiratory bypass. Reading it quickly she almost let out her breath giggling.

It hadn't been knock out drugs. He'd grabbed the wrong bottle. It was Mnemosine Recall-Wipe Vapour. He'd be perfectly fine, but at the dosage he'd just inhaled, he'd lose several years of his memory.

Crawling out of the console, she quickly climbed the ladder to the roof and released the manual roof lock, depressurizing the cockpit just enough the suck the Vapour out of the ship.

There was enough of it, that most of Orlando would probably have a fuzzy moment at some time in the next few days.

Closing the hatch again, she began to toddle around the ship, exploring the different cavities and scavenging anything she might need.

Within fifteen minutes she had found a sonic laser pointer that could cut through almost anything and a Time Agency stamped infinite credit stick. She had also tossed her ragged, dirty clothes into the trash incinerator in exchange for what looked to be an extra small woman's shirt she'd found under the Time Agent's bed.

It loudly exclaimed in pink letters, HAKUNA MY TATAS.

The gaudy shirt was still enormous on her tiny frame, coming down to her ankles, but at least it was leagues cleaner than her last option and didn't drag the floor.

She hadn't been able to reach the controls for the shower and been forced to wash up in the sink, which might as well have been a bath tub in comparison to her diminutive size.

Hopping over the still unconscious man, she crawled up into the open bed and decided that she'd fended off sleep long enough. With a small yawn, she was out like a light. Completely unaware that the preset navigation system was set to hurtle them back to the 51st century in half an hour.

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A/N: If you want me to continue, let me know with a review. If enough people like it, I'll turn it into a full length fic.

TBC – Part 1: Egg

Chapter 2: A Lively Tune


	3. Egg Chapter 2: A Lively Tune

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Part 1: Egg

Chapter 2: A Lively Tune

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5034 Boe's Peninsula, Earth 12.

When Jack woke up, he was more than just a little confused.

Not only was there a toddler sleeping in the bed next to his spot on the floor, his external chronometer told him that he had aged 2 years overnight.

Upon checking his location, he was surprised to find that the Time Agency ship he was in (something he was six months of training away from being able to fly) had landed them back in the 51st century, two years after the last time he'd visited the Boe Penisula.

He was home.

The kid still confused him. He felt like he'd remember becoming a father, but what did he know. He'd lost years of his memory and didn't know why.

Was it something he'd witnessed at the Agency?

Before he could think on it further, the tiny form on the bed stretched and began to rub her little eyes with her adorably small fists.

The cuteness ended there.

Within the span of a blink the little girl had sonic laser pointed at him, "Where are we? That isn't Florida on that screen! That isn't even Earth!"

Blinking in confusion, he looked back at the screen. How could a toddler know they weren't on Earth from just a small portion of a global map.

"Er-It's Earth, it's just not the original earth. This is Earth 12JX in the 51st century," he replied confused.

"The 51st Century? Damnit! You need to take me back to the 21st century NOW!" the little girl demanded.

"How exactly do you propose I do that? I don't know how to pilot this ship! I still have six months of training before I'm even allowed to touch one of these things?" Jack replied, "Who are you anyway? How did we get here? And why don't I remember two years of my life?"

The little girl blinked up at him in horror.

"You don't remember how to fly the ship? Just my luck. Stuck three thousand years away from my parents! This is a nightmare!" the oddly precocious little girl exclaimed. Tears came to her eyes, causing her to growl in anger, "Stupid baby face with your stupid baby tears," she cried harder, "I hate being so useless."

Jack hated it when kids cried and immediately tried to calm the girl down, "Don't cry, it'll be okay, I'm sure if we go to the time agency, they'll know how to get you back."

The girl started crying harder, "NO! They'll never let me see my parents again, they'll kidnap me like you did and I'll never get home ever again!"

He blanched at that revelation. What the hell kind of person had the Agency made him become if he was willing to kidnap children.

"Alright, we won't go to the Agency. What do you propose we do?" he tried. She seemed a lot smarter than your average human toddler. Perhaps she could actually help him sort this out.

"Y-you want my opinion?" she asked, her tears stopping.

"Er- yeah. You actually seem to know more about what's going on than I do at the moment," Jack replied, "I'm Jack by the way. Captain Jack Harkness. What's your name?"

Her face crinkled with a recalcitrant look as she answered carefully. "Melody…..Melody P-Pool."

"Well then Melody, since we're on my home turf and you have a case of credit sticks hidden under that pillow, why don't we see if we can buy you something to wear other than an oversized joke shirt?" Jack offered with one of his winning smiles.

For the first time in months Melody smiled, "Sounds like a plan," she agreed, before quickly adding, "But nothing too frilly or you'll find out where those teeth marks on your arm came from."

Jack blanched as he looked down at his arm.

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1940's New York, US, Earth.

The three couples were laughing at the tale of toddler Melody Pond.

"You could tell she had scots in her even without meeting her mum," Clara laughed as she wiped a tear from the corner of her eye.

"I still can't believe that out of everyone she could have run into, she ran into Jack Harkness, before we'd even met him," the Doctor chuckled, his grin wide at the thought of River up ending his life and biting the Lothario.

"It's funny to think that we would never have met him, if it weren't for Melody wiping his memory," Rose agreed. She could hardly argue the fact, when her own entire life was one big coincidence.


	4. Egg Chapter 3: Fiesty Little Marshmallow

A/N: Reviews please, so that I know whether or not anyone actually likes this

Disclaimer: BBC owns everything but the plot.

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Part 1: Egg

Chapter 3: S'mores

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5040 New Hong Kong, Earth 12

"If you fall off, I'm not calling room service for ice if you hurt yourself," Jack warned lazily, flicking to the next channel from his own bed as the physically seven year old girl attempted to see how high she could bounce on the motel mattress.

"I'm not going to fall," Mallow argued as she ignored him in favor of doing a flip midair over the old model Comfort9000. Her blond ringlets swishing as she somersaulted through the air.

As soon as she finished saying this her foot missed the bed and she landed with a thud between the two beds.

"Told you so," Jack sighed as he put down the remote and went to check on his diminutive partner in crime.

His lackadaisical approach was quickly replaced with concern as he saw that not only was she not moving, her chest wasn't rising up and down with breath.

"Mallow? Hey, Mallow? Are you okay? Melody?" Jack called down, suspiciously nudging her face with the toe of his shoe.

Her blonde remained still…too still. Jack stepped over her body and walked to the nightstand. Opening it, he removed a small black pouch and emptied a portion of its contents into his hand.

"Well, since you're either unconscious or dead, you won't be missing these," Jack supposed aloud as he sat down and began sifting through the various valuables. Picking up a diamond of reasonable karat he held it up to the light to check its clarity.

The tiny figure on the carpet sat up and glared at him, blowing the bangs out of her eyes as she went, "How could you tell I was faking?"

"I'm not a mark, Mallow," Jack laughed as he placed the handful of diamonds, gold coins and jewels back into the little klepto's security pouch. It was secured so only the two of them could open it, "You can't pull a fast one on the con who taught you everything you know."

She merely stuck her tongue out in reply as she stood up and quickly returned to bouncing on the vacant bed.

"So? Have you gotten word yet about our next job?" the little girl asked.

"Yep, and you're the star in this one. It's a medium security bank. Apparently we're going to be given the key to box 348. The owner is paying us to retrieve something the contents and bring them to him without being seen," he explained.

"If he has a key, then why does he need us?" Mallow asked stopping her jumping and settling down to sit on the edge of the bed. Grabbing the last unopened apple soda from the night stand, she cracked it open while she waited for an answer.

"Guy's apparently legally dead. He faked his death so his heir would get an enormous untaxed insurance payout. The catch is, he's the heir. He set up a fake identity and has been masquerading as two people for years to set this up. So now he's dead, but apparently he forgot an important document he needs to prove he's the beneficiary instead of his old identities supposed widow. It's in a safety deposit box in a small bank on the outskirts of town. Since he's technically dead, he can't very well show up and demand to get into the box. So he's hiring us to retrieve it instead," Jack elaborated as he pulled out a holoprojector and pulled up the plans the customer had sent them of the bank.

"I hate you," she grumbled as she noticed the highlighted path into the security deposit box chamber. The only unguarded way in was through the barely 2x2 air vent that connected with the branch managers office.

She was obviously going to have to infiltrate the bank and the crawl through the tiny vent.

"What exactly are you going to be doing to earn your cut of the pay?" Mallow growled, narrowing her eyes.

Jack merely grinned at her, "Why, drive the getaway car of course."

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Mallow swallowed a curse as she adjusted the hem of the small dress she was wearing. It was pink.

She hated pink.

To make matters worse it was also lined with a lacy pattern that matched the frill of the white socks she was wearing.

With a put upon sigh she screwed up her face and rammed her unprotected knee into the rough brick of the alley wall.

She didn't have to fake too much as the pain of scrapping the length of her shin was enough to bring real tears to her eyes.

Letting the blood run into her tiny black shoes, she watched as the rivulets soaked into the absorbent cotton. Without further ado she limped out of the alley and up to the front of the bank, opening the door and wailing loudly.

Her sobs quickly drew the attention of the occupants.

Within moments, one of the tellers was kneeling in front of her, asking her what happened.

"I-I m-missed th-the sch-schoool bus, a-and I-I t-tried to-to walk to-to sc-school and I g-got l-lost. A d-d-dog ch-chased me and I fell down. I-I don't know wh-where I aaam," she chokingly sobbed. The teller seemed to buy it as she soothing rubbed her back and murmured encouraging words.

"Don't worry sweetie, we'll figure out where you're supposed to be. Do you know your parent's Contact ID number?" the nice brunette asked as she picked Mallow up and carefully placed her on her hip so that her injured leg wasn't hurt more.

Mallow nodded, her body still racked with fake sobs.

The woman carried her down the hall to the nearest open office and gently placed her on the nearest chair in front of an occupied desk.

A desk that held a name plate that read, 'Robert Nambings – Branch Manager".

"Hey, Bob, this little girl came into the lobby crying. She says she's lost. Do you mind if she sits in here while I call her parents to come get her?" the woman asked.

"No problem Carol. Probably best she's not disrupting work anyway," 'Bob the Branch Manager' replied.

The man seemed to have realized that what he said might be a little callous so he quickly amended by turning to the little girl sitting in front of him, "Why don't I go get the first aid kit, and see if we can get you patched up?"

Mallow offered a watery smile, "Yes, please."

As soon as the man was out of the office she scrambled out of her chair and onto the top of the desk.

'Oh this is too easy,' she thought as she pulled out the orange corded key chain she'd pickpocketed from 'Carol' and expertly climbed up the side of the cabinet and into the vent.

She estimated she had three to four minutes before the man returned with the first aid kit.

'Easy Peasy,' she giggled mentally as she easily slide through the vent to the next room and dropped to the floor. Her superior physiology preventing her from injuring herself even more.

Within the minute she located the box and had it open using 'Carol's' key in tandem with the one she'd brought with her. Snatching the Secure Legal Microchip, she placed it in the toe of her clean sock and quickly put it back on along with her shoe.

After another minute she was sliding back into the office, closing the vent as she went and jumping down to her chair just as Bob returned with the first aid kit.

Her face still tracked with tears, she looked up at the man as he set the kit on his desk and kneeled in front of her.

"How's it feel?" he asked, pulling out a can of spray disinfectant and liberally spraying the area with the combination of numbing agent and antibiotic.

"Much better thank you," she replied politely, "oh and sir, that nice lady dropped these key thingies when she put me down."

Mallow held out Carol's set of keys as if she was being a good little girl returning a truly dropped item.

"Thank you, I'll get them back to her," He replied as he pocketed them and proceeded to spray Dermogenerator onto the broken skin.

Before her eyes it began coagulating and the angry red dulled to the pink of a week old scrape.

Smiling sweetly, she thanked him once again, just as she heard the sound of a frantic voice in the lobby.

"Where is she? I got a call that my daughter was here!?" Jack's familiar tenor called out with practiced panic. This wasn't the first time they'd played this role of father and daughter.

Carol and Jack quickly appeared in the office doorway, "Oh, Melody, do you have any idea how scared I was when the school called and said you hadn't showed up? Your father and I were beside ourselves!"

Jack loved playing the role of the worried stay at home dad. His melodramatic personality lending itself easily to the part of the overprotective and frantic father.

"Oh, thank you so much for calling us," Jack thanked profusely, shaking both Bob and Carol's hands as if they were about to disappear, "My husband and I were so worried! We've been looking for her for over an hour."

"It's no problem at all. We're glad to help. In fact if you need anything else, give us a call. We also can help you find good investment opportunities," Bob smiled, handing the doting father a business card.

"Of course. After seeing how well you take care of my little girl, I'm sure my husband will jump at the chance. He takes care of all the financials in the house," Jack replied with a charming grin, "Well we'd best be on our way, this little miss has already missed half a day of school as it is."

And with that the pair discreetly made their getaway in broad day light.

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Once back at the motel, the pair was counting the bag of untraceable gold nuggets the client had paid in. After their original infinite credit stick had been declined when the Time Agency realized their agent had gone rogue, the pair had taken to doing con artistry. Their biggest asset was that no one suspected the physically 7 year old girl to actually be a 16 year old genius with in-human strength, agility, stamina and the ability to hold her breath for nearly thirty minutes.

Life in 5040 was good.

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"My little girl was a BANK ROBBER?" Rory twitched.

Amy merely laughed, "We should have guessed she had a criminal past when she nearly ran the doctor down in a stolen car and demanded to go murder Hitler. I'm surprised we didn't have more trouble out of her when she was Mels."

That got the room laughing again.

"Why did she change her name to Mallow though? I mean I can understand lying at first about her last name just in case he was with the Silence, but why Mallow after telling him that her name was Melody?" Clara asked curious about the name change.

"When they'd first started doing cons, they had to start small and the local gang demanded a cut or they'd be snitched on to the cops and lose the advantage of people not suspecting a small child," Rose explained, "After realizing how lucrative it was to having an operative that no one in their right mind would suspect, they initiated both Jack and Melody into the gang. It was the Marsh Street gang and the gang leader Kermit called her his little Marsh Mallow. They were a surprising good family during the early days. Unfortunately, once Melody looked about 5, the gang got busted and Jack and Melody had to flee to Hong Kong to avoid getting brought in too. The name stuck though. And she was Mallow until she was about twenty, eleven years after her first regeneration.

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TBC: In Egg Chapter 4: TBA

A/N: Please Please Please Pleeeeease review if you enjoy this, or even to tell me all the things I've done wrong.


	5. Egg Chapter 4: Hazard a Guess

Disclaimer: BBC owns everything but the plot.

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Part 1: Egg

Chapter 4: Hazard a Guess

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It had taken the criminal duet nearly eleven years to figure out how the time ship worked and to get it running in an efficient and dependable way.

So it was on Melody 'Mallow' Ponds twenty birthday that the pair decided to finally attempt the trip back to the twenty first century, where Melody was sure her parents were anxiously awaiting her arrival.

"I think we should start small, to make sure all the repairs and programming are up to snuff. We don't want to get stranded in the dinosaur times or on a deserted moon or something," Jack advised as he fiddled with the controls, "Besides, the core doesn't have enough energy to accurately go back three thousand years anyway."

Melody rolled her eyes, "If we do that we have an equal chance of getting stranded a thousand years ahead or behind our goal without the proper equipment to make repairs or charge the ship. I say we hazard a guess. By aiming the jump a little less accurately we can make it farther. The worst that can happen is a couple decades off. It's a much smaller gap to have to worry about. Besides, I can wait a few years if need be."

"What about me? I don't want to be stranded in the 21st century if this all goes wrong," Jack scoffed at her plan, "HEY?! Wait, what are you doing!?"

The blonde girl had lunged forward without warning and slammed the ignition lever as far down as it would go, causing maximum acceleration with little accuracy.

"MELODY?! What the fuck?! Those coordinates just say the century? You didn't even aim for a decade?" Jack shouted incensed at the impulsive act. He couldn't do more than hold on for dear life as they pelted through the time vortex with little control.

Throwing out her psychic senses into the time stream, she search desperately for some sign of her mother. She was more closely connected to her than to Rory, simply because she'd only met her father once and she had been a ganger copy at the time.

Several seconds passed as she felt nothing. The ship continued to zip helter skelter through the vortex and Jack continued to scream expletives at the girl.

"I swear to fucking god, when this thing stops I'm going to- What the fuck are you doing now?" Jack screamed over the sound of the engines.

All that could be made of the girl was a scramble of blonde hair as she launched herself at the ladder that lead to the external hull hatch.

"MELODY?! You can't open that while the ships moving the vortex will rip you apar-"

The hatch flew open and the physically young girl was sucked out and away. The hatch slammed shut forcefully and Jack lowered his head, tears in his eyes, knowing that even such an amazing girl as Melody Pond couldn't have survived the rigors of the Vortex.

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Melody hadn't thought of the consequences of what she had done. She'd simply felt the sensation of a psychic shout that matched the wavelength of her mother's mind and she'd done the only thing she could think of to ensure she met her mother. She threw herself out of the ship hatch and let the vortex take her.

'In retrospect this might not have been the best idea,' Melody thought as the time energy began ripping into her skin like acid. She was close to dying, she knew that, she could only hope that whatever it was that saved her last time would repeat itself.

Gold light began escaping her body as the vortex's energy reached her muscle. She was dying, what she was also coming back to life. What an odd sensation.

All of a sudden the gold light exploded forcefully and punched a hole in the wall of the acidic fiery vortex, spitting her out, unbeknownst to her, two years before Amy had prayed to Santa. It was that psychic message that she'd picked up on.

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Melody woke up in a hospital bed, with a woman beside it, sitting in a chair filling out paper work.

"Oh my," the woman said as she realized the girl was awake, "Let me fetch the doctor, I'll be right back."

Looking around, the twenty year old blinked at all the primitive hospital equipment. Well primitive to what she'd become accustomed to in the 51st century.

A glance at her hands sent her reeling for a moment as she thought her skinned had been badly burned, only to realize that it was simply a different color.

Rolling out of the hospital bed, she ripped the IV from her arm and stumbled to the bathroom to look at herself in the mirror.

Upon standing up fully, she realized that even though she had changed again, she was still very short. Even shorter it seemed than her previous physically eleven year old body.

"Bloody hell," she squawked when she finally reached the bathroom mirror, "I didn't know that could happen. And why do I look five?" she groaned.

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"Wait, so you mean to tell me that when I met Mels Zuckerman when I was five in school….she was already twenty?" Amy blinked, flabbergasted.

"Give or take, time travel makes it a bit hard to keep up with exact birthdays and what not," Rose replied, "The Doctor here is a prime example. He lost count of how old he was because he kept switching back and forth between Gallifreyan years and Terran Years. Imagine how confusing it is to be 125 in Gallifreyan years and then convert it to Terran years and be twice as many years old, then time travel, not keep count of the years, convert back the estimate and so on and so forth."

"It's true, not to mention all the years I lost due to memory wipe or alternate dimension or closing paradoxes so the time I lived never technically happened. It's all terribly confusing," the Doctor agreed, "I only say I'm over 2000 because it's the best guess I have."


End file.
